In Pakistan, lately we are getting prone to marches and protests. But couple of days back newspapers printed a unique protest launched by a young man, Hashmat Ali, outside Peshawar Press Club.

The placard he’s holding states:

“Announcement For All” [Protest to Get Married]

Its requested to all people that I’m under lots of torture. My father is very wealthy. I’m eldest in my siblings. My father has married all of theme even though they are all jobless. I’m working as a watchman in a girl’s hostel and earning Rs. 5000 per month. Even then my father is not arranging my marriage.

I request that my father arrange my marriage in time.

Thanks.

We, at ATP, wish him all the best. And unanimously requests his father to marry him in time. Do you join me in this prayer?

If he removes the scarf from his head, shaves off the stubble on his face, and pays more attention to the roost he is guarding, he is more likely to find a bride for himself.

I have a fleeting suspicion, though, that his father knows a thing or two about him that we don’t.

Fakhar says:

March 25th, 2009 6:23 am

Bol Keh Lab azad Hain Tere

Murtaza Shah says:

March 25th, 2009 8:50 am

Do you believe it’s possible??
Well I believe that, Pour quoi, Pathan kuchh be kar sakta hai.
There is one more thing to add, it is possible that his father is not paying the WALWER ( money to buy the bride, as it is tradiotion there ).

1. A grown man is asking his father to arrange a marriage for him. In Pakistan, I know, women need elders to arrange their marriages not men. In a male dominated society, it is common to hear women suffer in different forms but I did not know that men needed help with marrying as well.

2. It shows the childish use of media by all and sundry. This is just a harmless rendition of what is becoming a really serious problem in Pakistan. Electronic media is emerging as another institution in Pakistan which does not know its own boundaries. By constantly telling an elected government on finer points of running a country, channels like Geo are crossing the fine line between responsible and reckless journalism. It is true that media has played a role in some good events in recent Pakistani history but by playing a partisan role for too long, it will lose all credibility that it has built with a lot of hard work and perseverance. There is a need for it to devise a self regulation mechanism for a continued support of all people of Pakistan.

Hashmat is lucky that he has a father to arrange for his marriage. What should they do who have neither mother nor father to do the needful. I suggest that PPP should also add promise for marriage which becomes essential after one gets their ‘Roti, Kaprha and Makan’. This may prove to be an effective measure for prevention of potential suicide bombers to blast.